Edinburgh adventurer Mollie Hughes compares lockdown to epic South Pole journey

She became the youngest woman to ski solo to the South Pole, enduring horrific whiteouts for eight days in a row, headwinds of over 50 knots, and freezing temperatures as low as minus 45C.

But Edinburgh-based adventurer Mollie Hughes says living under lockdown has presented its own challenges.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings with Stephen Jardine show, Mollie said: "I've definitely had this feeling of claustrophobia.

"I live in a small one bedroom flat in the middle of the city, so I'm kind of used to being in big open landscapes. But because I've spent so much of this year in Antarctica, where there’s endless horizons as far as you can see, I'm now starting to feel a little bit cooped up.

Mollie Hughes became the youngest woman to ski solo to the South Pole.

"I've been trying to get out as much as possible, going to the local park or walking up and down the Water of Leith."

"My time in the Antarctic is similar to the situation we've got now in that there's quite a lot of uncertainty - it's quite hard to tell how much longer we're going to be in this situation."

"In the Antarctic it was the same, because at the beginning of my trip I had horrendous weather for the first two weeks and that put me so far behind schedule. So when we came out of that weather system I didn't really know if I had another 30 days of skiing ahead of me or another 40 days ahead of me.

"That thought was too much to contemplate," continued the 29-year-old. "It weighed down on my shoulders as this big pressure of having to ski for possibly another 40 days."

Mollie, whose epic 700-mile expedition saw her spend nearly 60 days alone on the Antarctic ice, added: "It kind of feels like that right now, because we don't know when we are going to come out of this situation.

"We don't know how long we are going to be locked down for and return to our normal lives."

Mollie started her world record attempt on November 13, 2019, departing from Hercules Inlet in Western Antarctica.

She skied eastwards for 702 miles and arrived at the South Pole 58-and-a-half days later on Friday 10 January.

Devon-born Mollie took the world record from previous holder, Vilborg Gissuradottir from Iceland, who completed the challenge in 2013 when she was 32.

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